Also, because I have to get it out of my system: Idigorry, Malevich's Black Square painting (of which he made 4 between 1915 and 1930ish) is so special because it more or less is the culmination of the thought and ideas behind abstract paintings and it was Malevich's interpretation of God, both everything and nothing. To me it has added meaning because it inspired Rothko to make his black on black paintings which have been said to be harder to reproduce than a Rembrant or Van Gogh because they aren't just a black square on a black background but there are many layers of colour behind those which give it a surreal effect that is nigh impossible to recreate.

It is, like with a lot of art, not the technical skill but the context, story and history that make it so special.

Edited, Oct 30th 2013 10:35pm by Aethien

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This in "things that go over people's heads": I'm heavily involved in quaternion-related theory stuff at the moment (that's the 4 dimensional extension of complex numbers). I also found a competition that has a deadline after my finals to win money for writing a history of mathematics essay. So tomorrow night I'll take a look at first edition versions of some of Hamilton's original works (from 1853 and 1866) on the topic.

Hamilton was cool, and if I can get money out of reading older papers for the information I need anyway, that's awesome.

Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

One of the first US politicritters to get caught having an affair, and actually resigned for it.

I thought he was the Formula 1 driver.

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Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

Also, because I have to get it out of my system: Idigorry, Malevich's Black Square painting (of which he made 4 between 1915 and 1930ish) is so special because it more or less is the culmination of the thought and ideas behind abstract paintings and it was Malevich's interpretation of God, both everything and nothing. To me it has added meaning because it inspired Rothko to make his black on black paintings which have been said to be harder to reproduce than a Rembrant or Van Gogh because they aren't just a black square on a black background but there are many layers of colour behind those which give it a surreal effect that is nigh impossible to recreate.

It is, like with a lot of art, not the technical skill but the context, story and history that make it so special.

Edited, Oct 30th 2013 10:35pm by Aethien

Still just a square of black color, though.

Art, to me, has always been a mix of vision and skill. You can have either, but art is when you combine the two. As such, his vision of "all and nothing" I can get behind, but not his presentation of that vision. It's a square of black color. I could have my 3rd graders reproduce the exact same vision in less than 10 minutes.

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Please "talk up" if your comprehension white-shifts. I will use simple-happy language-words to help you understand.

Black is technically not even a colour. And the skill is not in the technical aspect but in making it as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Also keep in mind that it is almost 100 years old, it was a lot more revolutionary back then than it may seem now.

The black square is of course extremely minimal in composition but artists like Jackson Pollock or Mondriaan didn't use techniques too advanced for a third grader yet their work still has a quality few other people can match.

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Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

Yves Klein? Because he developed the paint and colour used for those paintings (the colour is now known as International Klein Blue) so there's more thought behind it than just painting a canvas blue.

He also managed to get 3000 people to queue up to look at an empty gallery which I think is pretty ******* brilliant.

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I think his work is/was borderline performance art rather than a painting. I'm not that familiar with his work though.

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I dunno, for me something that's good art makes me consider or see something in a new light, or helps reveal something I hadn't seen or considered before. I've seen lots of empty rooms, and unless there's more to it than that it's missing the mark with me.

In the case of that exposition (aptly named "The Void") it probably would have made you see things in a new light if you were in that queue. Especially the last people, having waited for maybe a few hours based on nothing but hype.

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Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

The black square is of course extremely minimal in composition but artists like Jackson Pollock or Mondriaan didn't use techniques too advanced for a third grader yet their work still has a quality few other people can match.

Black is technically not even a colour. And the skill is not in the technical aspect but in making it as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Also keep in mind that it is almost 100 years old, it was a lot more revolutionary back then than it may seem now.

I hope this doesn't come across as me just jumping on the Bandwagon, but I really am missing something with this black square. I just don't see this guy sitting for days, struggling with "how can I best represent my vision of God?" and finally, after innumerable attempts, coming up with a black square mounted on a slightly larger stone colored square. It is more likely to me that he came up with the explanation afterward, maybe as he sat there with a friend, drunk, and they were talking about the funny painting in the corner.

When I was a kid, another kid showed me a blank page and told me it was his masterpiece. I asked what it was. He said it was a cow in a meadow. I asked where the grass was. He said the cow ate it. I asked where the cow was. He said it ate all the grass so it left. Is that art? Yeah, it's just a dumb third grade joke. But it was this kid's expression of a cow in a meadow.

It's not art simply because a fairly intelligent guy/gal/con artist can come up with what sounds like a cool explanation for it. To me, art is something that if I stare at it long enough, it moves me somehow or I see something in it. I could stare at that black square forever and it would not move me, and I would never think it was a representation of God or of anything other than a black square. I think you give Malevich too much credit for this, like everyone else. I also think there's a lot of hive mind mentality at work in connection with this Black Square.

How about I re-imagine it for you. I think it more represents the artist and his time than anything else. Communism was the stripping away of all wealth to make everyone equal. Individuality was crushed. The Black Square represents this - form is anathema because it illustrates individuality. The Black Square is nothing more than a representation of the artist's life at the time. Mildly interesting at best. Some of his other work is much more interesting, and is actually art. Like his white squares painting. Which is obviously a representation of boobs.

Now, as for the knotted chair . . .

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"the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." Hermann Goering, April 1946.

Also, that seems odd? You'd think Valve would want to line it up with their Halloween sale...

Last year Halloween was this alternate game you could queue for, in which teams competed to steal candy from each other's pumpkins. After a certain amount of time, a big neutral monster runs onto the scene (he had previously been attacking random players for candy) and all 10 players of both teams work together to kill him.

It was really popular especially because everyone got one item guaranteed, and an extra one for winning the candy stealing stage. If Valve was going to do the Halloween event again, you'd think it would've started by now. TF2 and CS have both got their Halloween things going, and WoW/GW2 have had theirs going on for weeks at this point.

Cynyck, obviously there's a lot of hivemind mentality but it also gets a lot of it's value from it's context and it's place in art history. It's very much a right place at the right time kind of thing.

Just the fact that it inspired so many other people makes it more than mildly interesting. At the end of the day it is of course still a black ******* square and the painting itself is probably the least interesting thing about the painting.

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Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.